A loud cracking can be heard echoing throughout the empty village as an arrow soars through the air, hitting its target and sending shards of bone flying. The skeleton drops his shoddy sword to the ground as he’s rendered unable to act, and he soon falls to the ground, his limbs spilling all over one another. Falfaelor pushes his dark hair back behind one pierced and slightly pointed ear. “Where do they keep coming from?” he remarks, readying another arrow.

“I’m unsure,” his roommate and half-brother, Sven, remarks, “Keep a steady eye.” Sven stands at a steady six and a half feet; he’s very tall next to the half elf. He quickly runs cloth from his loose sleeves over his sword, wiping away the dust and crushed bone. Next to his roguish friend, the elven Sven looks very clean, wiping away dirt in between swings of his sword.

Falfaelor calls out, “Left!” and an arrow rips through the humerus of another skeleton and lodges itself in its ribcage, just between the third and fourth ribs. Sven takes a swift step to the side and cleanly cuts through the creature, tearing through some muscle that hadn’t yet decayed. This skeleton too fell upon itself, joining its mindless comrades in death. Piles of bone were scattered all throughout the town; the brothers had been at it for some time.

Silence shook the buildings as the villagers who had chosen to stay awaited the end of all the madness. To the people living in the small village, it must have been very frightening; to the adventurers, this was just another day, another small bag of gold pieces for their troubles. It wasn’t flattering, but it was a living.

Falfaelor surveyed his surroundings, waiting for another to rear its head, tossing his messy hair back as his bangs catch on his eyebrow piercing. “Is that all of them?” he inquired, trying to keep his voice down but finding it hard to do so through such harsh breathing. He was amazed to see that his brother stood only a few feet away, once again dusting off his cloak, having not even broken a sweat.

“Not even close,” Sven answers him with a calm demeanor, fully expecting the next wave to come. His pale hair fell gently and perfectly in front of his face, his hazel eyes glowing through. Falfaelor sighed; he couldn’t help but be reminded of how different he and his brother were from one another. He occasionally wished for the perfect hair and perfect vision his brother possessed, but he wouldn’t say it.

The village stood still for a few minutes and the brothers stood in silent agony. The stillness in the air was wrong. Enemies had stopped rising, but the boys were unsure as to why, and therefore could not put their guard down. For a few moments, it was so calm and still the two could have watched the clouds move across the sky. Then, unexpectedly, the ground began to shake. It was like a small earthquake was rattling the village. Dust and rocks were tossed around as the strength of the quake increased. Falfaelor found it hard to keep his balance as he was taken a bit off guard by the sudden event. His eyes raced around the surrounding area and finally lay on his perfect brother Sven, who stood still even through the rumbling of the earth. His stunning eyes were fixed on the ground in one area. Falfaelor took a deep breath and attempted to steady himself; readying another arrow and pointing it to the place Sven’s eyes were affixed.

The ground stood still for the shortest of moments before splitting the town in two. One large, bony hand shot up from the ground. The bones on this one looked older than the others, and it was stripped of all muscle and flesh. A second arm showed itself and Falfaelor shook himself out of his stupor, leasing an arrow and piercing one of the bones in the creature’s hand. Sven didn’t miss a beat and leapt forward, slashing at the forearm of the creature as it began to pull the rest of its body out of the dry ground. His sword only scratched the surface of the monster, but he kept on swinging. It was almost mesmerizing watching Sven fight; he was so quick and precise with every strike.

“A giant…” Falfaelor spoke, the words falling almost subconsciously from his lips. He had never seen one before in person, but he had been told stories of the giants as a young child. His father would read old accounts from the scrolls he kept as Falfaelor was falling asleep. He had never thought that the beasts could be real, but here stood what could only be the skeleton of a giant towering above him. Its skull gave no expression as it stared down upon the brothers.

Sven darted about the monster’s legs skillfully as it tried to swipe at him. The huge beast just couldn’t keep up with Sven’s footwork, however, and a loud snap could be heard as the bones of his massive ankles cracked, though it was not enough to fell the skeleton giant.

“Falfaelor!” Sven shouted out, glancing back to his dazed partner. “The villagers!” The cracks in the ground were encroaching upon the small wooden buildings; it wouldn’t be long before they fell into the chasm the giant had created. Sven had a moment to shake the dust from the creature’s bones off of his sword as he called to his brother before he began once again slamming into the reincarnated beast with his unmarked longsword.

Quickly, Falfaelor shook the awe out of his mind. He secured his bow to his back and ran to the nearest building. He could see in the window a young girl peering out to watch the fighting before her mother pulled her away. Falfaelor dodged a blow from the giant’s fist and leapt through the window, glass cutting into his arms. He could feel the building beginning to shift as the cracks in the earth grew beneath it; he didn’t have much time. He rushed forward, using his exceptional speed to quickly grab up the girl and her mother. The girl yelled out as he picked her up, her arms outstretched behind Falfaelor as he darted through the building.

He heard another very audible cracking noise; he assumed his brother had once more broken a piece of the giant. It wasn’t until he heard the ceiling cave in behind him that he realized the trouble that was following him. One huge hand fell through the roof, shaking the ground immediately behind Falfaelor. He clutched the small girl tightly as she struggled and screamed out of fear. The woman in his left arm felt heavy, she seemed to have fainted from shock.

He pushed through debris, making sure to keep the child safe at all costs, despite her constant struggling. He heard more cracking close behind him and heard a somewhat familiar sound; it sounded somewhat similar to that of a very tall building beginning to topple over. The wind whipped around, creating a sharp sound. Falfaelor picked up his pace, pushing through the pain that had developed in his legs. Everything happened in only a few short seconds, but it felt as if many eternities passed by Falfaelor’s eyes.

The building began to crack in half, though the half-elven brother could not tell if it was from the ever-widening chasm or the toppling giant. A piece of the ceiling fell only inches from Falfaelor and blocked the easiest pathway out of the crumbling building. The world seemed to be going in slow motion as he heard the wall next to him crack. He could hear bone and stone colliding as the beast began to fall through the building as splintered wood and glass shattered all around him. He made a split second decision and turned around, using all of the force left in him to slam into what he hoped to be a weak point in the wall, making sure to keep the two villagers safe. The girl screamed in shock as a femur fell through just a foot away from her.

The wall gave way to Falfaelor’s surprise and he found himself rolling onto the gravel road on the other side. Rocks pierced the parts of his skin uncovered by leather and his body felt heavy; he was certain he must have broken something, but he couldn’t feel much of anything through the rush of adrenaline. The small girl took this chance to free herself of his grasp and run away, as she should. The bone giant cried out with a deep sound as another crack shook the air. Falfaelor couldn’t help the thought that he wanted to be fighting it instead of his brother; but this was no time for such thoughts and he shook it away immediately. He opened his eyes just in time to see bones beginning to fall once more. Another landed on the place that had once been home to the young girl and her mother, and the only standing wall, the one Falfaelor had broken through, began to fall.

With every last bit of energy left in his shaken body, the half-elf threw himself over the unconscious woman. A wooden beam hit him square in the spine and he felt his arms beginning to buckle under the weight. The beam split mostly in half, but still lay on his back. Blood from his wounds leaked onto the woman underneath him, but she seemed unharmed. A smile crossed his face; this was his favorite part of the job.

There was silence, and then quick, precise footsteps filled the air behind Falfaelor. The beam was pulled off his body by one slender, pale hand. “Are you alright, brother?” Sven asked him, his perfect frame untouched. Falfaelor answered his question by falling sideways, off the woman. He met Sven’s gaze with his own hazel eyes and a smile, but he couldn’t quite muster words.

Sven just let out a gently laugh and spoke in a very certain way, “We’ll get you fixed up quickly, have no worries.”

Sven reached out one slender arm to Falfaelor, who graciously accepted. After some difficultly, Sven helped his brother to his feet before wiping the blood from Falfaelor’s hands off on his cloak. Falfaelor had a few moments to look over at the creature. It was ravaged by several very precise marks and cracks throughout its bones that all led up to one deep crack in its skull, the hilt of Sven’s sword sticking out of it, as if he had been unable to pull it out after driving it in. Sven always fought very precisely, almost symmetrically, and this was no exception to that. It seemed every cut had a brother, and every crack was mirrored on the other side of the giant’s body. The efficiency of Sven’s cuts was still apparent although the body of the creature had fallen and now lay as a pile of bones in the middle of the village. Quite the centerpiece, it was.

Then, the two heard sniffles coming from behind a nearby building; one of the ones that hadn’t been destroyed by the beast. The small girl that Falfaelor had carried from the building slowly approached the two brothers. Sven took a few steps toward her and with the slightest of smiles, fell to one knee before her. The girl stopped, shock in her eyes, and still a bit of fear. Sven then produced a small stuffed owl bear, a bit torn, but not unrecognizable, from a pouch on his back. The girl must have dropped it in all of the panic. With shaking arms she reached out and took it from Sven’s thin, pale hands. A smile crossed her face as she held it in her hands.

It wasn’t long before her mother stirred, too. She gripped her head, dazed at first, but quickly regained her senses and scrambled to her feet, running by Falfaelor to her daughter’s side. The young girl hugged Sven tightly around his waist and he ruffled her blonde hair with one pristine hand; Falfaelor thought he could hear the girl saying something about the tall man finding her friend. He just watched, exhausted and bloodied, but with a smile on his face. He couldn’t help but laugh a bit to himself at the familiar sight.

So was the life of a hero.